Tea at Trianon: Anastasia Romanovna, the First Romanov on the Throne

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Anastasia Romanovna, the First Romanov on the Throne

The story of the first wife of Ivan the Terrible. To quote:

Two weeks after his coronation, Ivan married his first wife Anastasia Romanovna, a member of the Romanov family, who became the first Russian tsaritsa (Queen-consort). She was the daughter of nobleman (Boyar) Roman Yurievich Zakharyin-Yuriev (okolnichi of Ivan’s father, Basil III), who died on 16 February 1543, who gave his name to the Romanov Dynasty of Russian monarchs, and his wife Uliana Ivanovna, who died in 1579.

Anastasia Romanovna was brought to the Kremlin for Ivan’s inspection along with as many as 1500 other potential brides in accordance with old custom of Byzantine Emperors - nobles from across Russia brought their eligible daughters and Ivan himself selected Anastasia as his preferred companion.

Anastasia was described by chronicles as a beauty of small stature, with fine and soft features, dark eyes and rich chestnut hair. She had a kind and mild persona, was pious and honest in character. Despite her many good qualities many noble families didn’t approve the marriage as they considered Anastasia to be beneath the Tsar and not equal to other, far more noble lines. (Read more.)